Balinese tourism continues to struggle with tourist arrivals to Bali declining 20% from January to May 2006, on the same period last year.

Continuing the story from Tourist Arrivals July 2006, in which visitor numbers in July 2006 were seen to have declined by 22% on July 2005, another set of statistics evinces a similar trend.

From January to May 2006 442,922 people braved concerns about security and terrorism to visit the tropical island, down from 552,605 from January-May 2005, a survey conducted by the Tourism section of Bank Indonesia in Denpasar.

The survey also found that due to the decline in demand the volume of sales, and price rates, in tourist industries declined by 0.23%. The recreational area was stagnant at +0.04% while activity and prices in the tour area was -0.27%. Because demand is weak tour operators are forced to offer discount prices, thus causing weakness in this measure.

The trend is a continuation of that which began after the 2002 terrorist attacks in Kuta. 1.4 million people visited Bali in 2004, this number becoming 1.3 million in 2005, and 442,922 until May of this year.